The two Hangout teams from LA and Boston took a road trip to Jackman Maine together for some rafting and bonding. The weather was in the 40’s and the water was rough, but that did not stop us. We toughed it out. I think the snazzy wetsuits helped. By the end of the day, the team was all smiles eating s’mores and sitting around a campfire. It was deemed a very successful bonding trip!

Mike Goslin has recently joined Hangout from Disney. We thought we would let you get to know him a little better.

Mike is currently the VP of Product Development at Hangout. This means he is responsible for everything having to do with with the Hangout product which includes, design, development, and operations. He also helps out with marketing, business development, PR, and whatever else comes along.

Mike spared a few minutes for an interview and this is what was discussed:

Hangout: What made you want to come to Hangout?

Mike: I was looking for something different. I had been at a very large company for a long time and thought I would try something more entrepreneurial. Hangout was an opportunity to join a small company that already had momentum in an area of entertainment that is very interesting to me – social media and games.

Hangout: How long have you been working at Hangout now?

Mike: A few months already. Where does the time go?

Hangout: What changes if any are you making to Hangout?

Mike: The team and I are totally revamping the product to reflect some new learnings in both the entertainment and social media fields. We are really excited about the new look.

Hangout: You worked at Disney before coming to Hangout, what was your position there?

Mike: I was VP of Virtual World Design and Development. I oversaw several development teams and was responsible for design and development of a portfolio of virtual words and massively multiplayer online games.

Hangout: What is different about your job at Hangout from your previous job at Disney?

Mike: The team is much smaller at Hangout, and things move quite a bit faster.

Hangout: Are there any similarities between your new job at Hangout and your old job at Disney?

Mike: The focus on building world class entertainment for a broad audience is the same at Hangout as it was at Disney. The team-oriented culture and work ethic are similar also.

Hangout: What, if anything, are you going to take from Disney to use towards your experience at Hangout?

Mike: I’m going to continue to focus on the customer and the player experience as we always did at Disney.

Hangout: How long have you worked with Joe and Daniel, who also came with you from Disney?

Mike: More than ten years. Joe was an intern at Imagineering the summer I started in 1996. Daniel joined a year later.

Hangout: What is your favorite feature on Hangout?

Mike: I like how easy it is to install and get into.

Hangout: What is unique about the audience at Hangout?

Mike: They haven’t quite found a game or experience online that suits their need to express themselves, stay connected, and play games.

Hangout: I know you are looking to incorporate more teen brands into the rooms, can you tell us more?

Mike: Our audience demands authenticity and a certain level of realism. Real brands are part of teen culture, and they make the world more authentic and realistic. It would be strange if it was all made-up stuff.

Hangout: Are you excited about some of the Boston team moving to LA?

Mike: I sure am. It will be nice to have everyone in one place so we can get busy building out the product.

Hangout: Is there anything else you want to say to our Users?

Mike: I can’t wait to share some of the things we are working on – stay tuned.

* Mike Goslin and his Disney team are new to Hangout but they are already making moves.

*Members of the Boston team moved out to our LA office last week. LA is quite an important place for 3D and animation development, so it is a great opportunity for them. The LA team is really excited to have them there! The Hangout Bostonians are excited for them too! or jealous rather — they get to work on their tan!!

Today we have the privilege of announcing the addition of Mike Goslin to the Hangout team as the Vice President Product Development. Mike joins Hangout from Disney Online where he was vice president development and built products such as ToonTown, Pirates of the Carribean Online, and Fairies. We’re thrilled to have Mike on board and looking forward to seeing him continue the acceleration of Hangout.net as a leading 3D social network.

Mike’s products are recognized worldwide and have received numerous awards and accolades including the 2005 WiredKids Safe Gaming Award, 2005 Webby Awards “Webby Worthy Selection”, 2004 Game Industry News Family Game of the Year, 2003 Computer Gaming World MMORPG of the Year, 2003 Webby Awards People’s Voice Award, The New York Times Top 10 Games of the Year 2003, and 2002 Outstanding Attraction from the Themed Entertainment Association.

As a Business Development executive I can’t emphasize enough how happy I am to have Mike as part of our time. Mike’s joining is both an affirmation of the momentum that Hangout.net has built, and an incredible addition to our development and creative team. I’m really looking forward to working with Mike and excited about the experience that we will deliver to our loyal users.

The following are the official rules for all contests held by Hangout.net. They may not apply to user-created contests.

All contestants must be at least 13 years of age or older, unless otherwise stated.

Contests do not require signup. Signup will not improve your chances of winning.

Any entries that fail to follow contest instructions will be considered ineligible.

Winners of raffles, lotteries, or other random-selection contests will be chosen at random from eligible entries.

Entries selected to win “best of” contests, design contests, user generated content contests, or any other contest requiring user submission of media, will be judged entirely at the discretion of Hangout.net. By submitting any screenshots, designs, user generated content, or other media to Hangout.net, you grant Hangout.net and its affiliates, licensees, and assigns, an irrevocable, perpetual, and royalty-free right to use, reproduce, edit, display, transmit, prepare derivative works of, modify, publish, and otherwise make use of the submitted media and all information pertaining to such media for any purpose throughout the world.

By entering, you give Hangout.net permission to use your first name and limited locational information (e.g., your city or state) in an announcement to other users or prospective users.

By submitting any media or information to Hangout.net, you hereby represent and warrant that the submitted media or information does not and shall not infringe on any copyright, any rights of privacy or publicity of any person, or any other right of any third party, and you have the right to grant any and all rights and licenses granted to Hangout.net herein, including but not limited to all necessary rights under copyright, free and clear of any claims or encumbrances.

You acknowledge and agree that Hangout.net has no obligation to post, display or otherwise make publicly available any media or information submitted by you, and may, in its sole and unfettered discretion, remove, edit, modify or delete any media or information that you submit.

You understand and intend that any media or information submitted by you to Hangout.net may be available for viewing, rating, review and comment on by the public, and understand that comments or ratings with which you disagree or are unhappy about may be published or otherwise become associated with any media or information you submit. By submitting any media or information to Hangout.net, you hereby waive any privacy expectations that you may have with respect to any such media or information submitted by you to Hangout.net.

You hereby agree to hold Hangout.net and its affiliates, licensees, sponsors, and assigns harmless from and against, and hereby waive any right to pursue, any claims of any nature arising in connection with the inclusion in, publication via or display on any Hangout.net site, or any other use authorized under these Rules, of any media or information submitted to Hangout.net by you;

Media or information submitted by you to Hangout.net shall be the property of Hangout.net, and Hangout.net shall have no obligation to preserve, return or otherwise make available to you or others any media or information so submitted.

If you win, you will be contacted at the email address you provided to Hangout.net when you entered the contest or signed up for Hangout.net. Winners must send an email response to Hangout.net within 14 calendar days of being notified of the contest result in order to claim any prizes. Failure to respond within 30 days will result in forfeit of the prize. Forfeited prizes may or may not be awarded to other users.

You agree that Hangout.net, Hangout.net’s sponsors, and employees of Hangout.net or Hangout.net’s sponsors shall not be held liable for any warranty, costs, damage, injury, or any other claims incurred as a result of usage of a prize once possession has been taken of the prize by the winner. Hangout.net is not liable for any loss arising out of or in connection with or resulting from any contest promoted by Hangout.net.

If the specified prize becomes unavailable due to unforeseen circumstances, Hangout.net may substitute a prize of like or equal value.

Management and employees of Hangout.net are prohibited from winning any prizes awarded by Hangout.net.

Hangout.net reserves the right to alter any rules of any contest at anytime. Please continue to monitor the contest entry page for any changes. If you have any questions about a Hangout.net contest, please contact Contest@hangout.net

You might love Valentine’s Day or you might hate it, but everyone loves winning prizes. If you can create the best Valentine’s Day themed room, we’ll give you an 8 GB iPod Touch! We’ll also be giving away all sorts of Hangout swag to the runner-up.

2) Make your room as festive as possible, using posters from Art.com, add your own Facebook photos, handpick the best Youtube videos, and make the best Seeqpod playlist! Make sure you dress your avatar up as well. Also be sure to check out the cool new Valentine’s assets!

3) Get your friends over and get some screenshots. Make sure everyone is dressed for the occasion! Don’t forget to show us screenshots of your seeqpod playlist.

5) To get more coin, so you can make your room as festive as possible click below and enter your e-mail address for 25,000 coin. (note: this may take up to 24 hours)

We’ll be judging the rooms on creativity, use of as many different aspects of the site (Posters from art.com, photos from facebook, wall stickers, youtube videos, furniture, etc.), use of avatars in the room, and don’t forget to type /emotes into the text box in the bottom right of your screen to see what you can make your avatar do.